These Situations
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Paul's not quite sure how he gets himself stuck in these stupid situations, but he figures he better enjoy them while they last. - One-shot.


Paul wasn't quite sure how he always got himself in such situations. He'd been a father for over five years at that point. He should be better at the bed time stuff. He should be a master at it. Instead, he was nothing, but a chump. An easily played chump.

"I missed you, Daddy."

That's what he was told by his oldest when he got in that evening. He was coming in just as his girls were sitting down to dinner, his wife still absent as she was staying late at the office. Two of their nannies were around, one already off upstairs tackling the impossible task of cleaning up his already finished eating one-year-old while the other was at the table, watching his older two eat.

"You did?" Paul asked after exchanging pleasantries with the nanny and asking just how well-behaved his children had been. Her eyes said not at all, but considering they were in front of the girls, she was kind enough not to throw them in front of the bus at the moment. "Rora?"

Nodding, his oldest giggled as he came over to kiss her on the head. "I missed you a lot."

"Missed you more!" His three-year-old was not to be outdone. "Lots more."

"You did?"

"No," her sister said with a frown.

"Yes!" Murphy wanted her hug and wanted it right then. Holding her arms out, she waited until her father came over to reward her with one. "Rora go to school. I stay here. Miss you more!"

"Na-ah!"

"Yes!"

"Maybe you both," their nanny suggested as she got to her feet, workday clearly nearing its end then, "missed him a bunch."

That was without question. However, it was obvious that one had missed him more than the other. It just wasn't so obvious which it had been.

They wanted him to sit down and eat with them, his girls did, and it wasn't like he'd deny them this. He ate one of his special meals though, much to the annoyance of Murphy, who kept trying to get him to eat half of one of her meatballs.

"You eat it."

"No. You eat."

"I'm eating my food."

"You eat."

"I am. My own food."

This went on with her for the course of the meal, only paused as his oldest would inform him of her very busy day at school, in which nothing seemed to happen, honestly, that didn't always happen, but he listened intently regardless.

They were both just so into him in that moment, even when the nanny downstairs with them left and wanted her goodbyes. They hardly even gave them! They were so intent on keeping his interest.

Now, Paul frequently felt loved in his household. Because he was. By his babies, wife, and heck, even his stupid dog. He was the only man in the house (the dog hardly counted, he was such a big baby) and that made him special. Different. Being a stinky, nasty boy, he wasn't always so up to tea parties or dress up or playing dolls. He would do those things, but it just took some goading. And he wasn't overly attentive, like Mommy, frequently letting them figure stuff out on their own. So long as they were safe and he could see them, he didn't care none if they dug around in the mud, in the back yard, or if they wanted to play with their food a bit. He thought it was funny, when they'd bring him cool looking bugs, didn't scold them too much when they were being bad, and certainly didn't harp on the fact they were for the entire day.

They loved to be around him. He knew this. And felt this. He loved being around them too. But that night they were laying it on a bit thick for some reason and, honestly, he was flat out eating it up.

So much so that, when the second nanny came down with a clean Vaughn who needed to be put to bed, he told the woman she could just take off.

"Are you sure?" she asked as the older two still hadn't had their baths (after spaghetti, they'd need them) and Stephanie wasn't supposed to be home for hours.

"I can take care of all three of them on my own."

Which wasn't a lie. He could. And he did, that night. It was more of those, 'If you don't have to, why do it' sorta things. But that night, they all seemed to be on their best behavior. Even his baby. She was hardly fussy, as he put her down for the night, and the older two didn't fight over story time or try to trick him into letting them stay up later.

His girls were just so well-behaved.

Paul was in his bedroom, messing around on his laptop, when about thirty minutes after putting them down, one of his daughters opened the bedroom door.

"Daddy?"

"What's up, Murph? You need water?"

Shaking her head, the little girl came rushing into the room, stopping at the foot of his bed. "I scared."

"I'm scared."

"Of the mon'ser?"

"What? No, I was correcting-"

"I sleep with you?"

"Murphy-"

"Missed you."

Well, shit.

Recently, Stephanie had been trying to cut down on this problem. She said that they let the girls sleep in bed with them far too much and that it wasn't good for them. He agreed, mostly, because he always agreed with everything his wife said, but…

"C'mon." He patted the spot next to him. "Just till Mommy gets home. Then you gotta go back to bed, okay?"

His three year old struggled a bit, clambering up on the bed, but Paul only reached down to help her.

"Watchin' movie?"

"No," he said slowly as she snuggled up to his side. "I'm doing Daddy stuff. You go to sleep."

"We should watch a movie."

"Go to sleep."

"You too."

"Excuse me?" He tried to look angry, but she was staring back up at him with such a heavy glare that he had to break and grin. His girls broke him down every time. "You little brat."

"You brat." Butt she was yawning then and he knew, even if he did play a movie on his laptop, it would only be a few minutes before she went to sleep. And he had a few burned to it, anyways, for the girls to watch during long rides on the bus or the times they flew with him on the plane.

What he didn't account for was Murphy's very loud laugh. Or the fact that, hardly having a grasp, honestly, on what was ever going on in the children's movies that he had for them. They were honestly more for Aurora than they were his other two. To counter this, frequently Murphy would jus tlaugh at random.

Like during the opening credits.

"How come Murphy gets to sleep in here?"

And her loud giggles were enough to awaken Aurora, who was in there all pouty and stuff. What could he do other than shift more to the center of the bed and tell her to come on?

Honestly, what?

Probably parent. Tell them both to go to bed. Like Steph always told him to do.

But they'd been so great, since he got home. Telling him how much they loved him and taking their baths and, during story time, Murphy had given him a kiss on the cheek and told him how he was the best daddy ever and, damn, they were just going to stay up late and watch a dang movie.

It was Friday, anyways, and even though he had stuff to do in the morning, Aurora had no school and Murphy's schedule was always open to more sleep, so what could you do?

Again, other than be a responsible parent?

They both conked out eventually, of course, and Paul was able to go back to scrolling through his emails and mostly just counting down till Steph got home. He'd actually been summoned by loud whines by their dog, Bluto, to come and let the poor pooch out. Paul wasn't sure if it was to use the bathroom or to go and sit by the front of their gatted property and wait for awhile in hopes that Steph came home.

He tried not to be offended by the fact that the dog, who he'd picked out for Steph, house trained, and just trained in general, preferred the woman, but sometimes it was rough.

But then, all things with dogs were ruff.

He was snickering over this, to himself, as he thought up this joke that he'd make to Steph later (she loved to pretend to hate his corny jokes), when he realized who's room he was outside of.

"Vaughn," he sighed as he had to push into the room at the sound of her cries. "It was just me."

It didn't matter. He'd snickered a bit too loud and now he had to deal with the consequences.

"You're just as bad as the two of them," he grumbled to his baby when, after settling her down a bit, he tried to set her back in her crib only for her little arms to wrap tightly around his neck. "You know that?"

But fair was only fair, after all.

Vaughn settled real well, on his chest, after Paul crawled back to the center of the bed, his older two already sleeping. It was still early, for him, which was actually a plus, as he new that if he could find some sleep himself, so early, he'd hopefully stay asleep and get at least six hours, if not seven.

And damn did his body need it.

The sleep seemed so sudden and immediate that, when he awoke from it, Paul was momentarily confused, momentarily. It was only once he realized though just where he was and just what had happened that he started to contemplate how he always got himself into such stupid situations.

Steph had come home. He could hear her snoring a bit, with out even turning his head to glance over are her (his baby had a bit of a cold, as of late, and her nose was always bothering her) which was probably actually what woke him up. This, though, was stuff that he was used to. Could sleep through it.

He couldn't, however, sleep through the huge drool spot Vaughn was making on his chest as she snoozed. Then there was Murphy who was kicking him as she always did, when she had eventufl dreams. And she constantly was having those. Aurora wasn't bother him though...other than the fact she'd somehow managed to roll onto one of his arms and had it pinned down to the bed where it had proceeded to fall asleep.

And it was all his fault. All of it. He could have sent Murphy back to bed, kept Aurora from coming as well, and certainly figured a way to get Vaughn back in her crib. But did he do it? Nope. Because he liked being miserable.

Apparently.

He didn't know how the girls all slept so well this way. The bed was certainly big enough for them all, but they loved to cuddle and, while he didn't hate it, this could lead to bothersome predicaments. Like the one he was in at the moment. Because trying to wiggle his arm out from under Aurora caused her to complain, shifting away from Murphy only led to her snuggling (and kicking) closer, while Vaughn only whined when he tried to lift her up and set her on the bed.

They were impossible.

But only to him it seemed as, per usual, it was him who was lying awake and his girl who were all sleeping the night away. If he didn't fall back asleep soon, he figured he'd have to go sleep in one of the guest rooms. When he would do this though, in the mornings Steph would gripe about how he just shouldn't let the girls sleep in bed with them and the girls would whine about how he left them.

It was a no win situation.

Plus...Paul didn't _hate_ sharing a bed with them. The was so big that, as stupid as it was, he felt pretty comfortable when they were right there with him. All of them. The girls didn't travel with them much anymore, on the bus, now that Aurora was in school, and Paul had bad feeling they wouldn't much at all when the other two finally hit that age. He liked sleeping in the bed on the bus, all of them, after a match or before one. Getting to do what he loved while the ones that he loved were waiting to spend time with him afterwards was always great.

He was still lying there, thinking of how he would crawl out of the bed and get away from them when it hit him. Aurora couldn't squash his arm and Murphy couldn't bruise (or at least attempt to) his sides if he wasn't lying beside them, could they?

First he had to tug his arm out from under Aurora who got her to roll away from him, a bit, which was for the best. And Murphy was so snuggled up to him that there was enough space between Murphy and Steph to set his year and a half old there. Free then, Paul sat up and tugged off his now nasty, spit spot soaked shirt and just tossed it across the room (where it hit poor Bluto, making the dog let out a slight grumble of some sort, but nothing other than that).

Crawling off the bed first, Paul then slid back into the center of it the other way, with his feet towards the pillows and headboard. There. Perfect. Now Aurora couldn't put his arms to sleep, Murphy was, at best, kicking at his thighs, and Vaughn was drooling on someone who wasn't him. Steph was still snoring, but, honestly, he couldn't do anything about that other than kick her out.

And, nearing a decade of marriage, he knew that you never kicked a woman out of the bedroom.

Not if you wanted to make it to that decade, anyways.

He was lying atop the blanket, but that was fine, as it was spring and he'd left his pillow, but he wasn't completely uncomfortable. Better than he was before. Much better. If he could just clear his mind, he'd drift right-

"Dada."

"No," he whispered as Vaughn shoved up slowly from where he'd sat her. "Vaughn, snuggle with Mommy. Vaughn-"

"Dada."

And she crawled right down the bed to him, to come clamber right up on his chest, where she rightfully belonged.

"You," he grumbled as, with a yawn, she stretched out, "are by far the most inconsiderate baby in the world. You know that?"

No. But she wouldn't care if she did.

How dare he try and leave her?

Still, this was fine. It wasn't perfect, but he could deal. Compared to the other two, drool was hardly an issue.

But Paul's speaking was, once more, his downfall. Aurora woke up and, at first, didn't seem to notice the way he was laying. She only climbed out of bed and, silently, Paul watched her walk across the darkened room to he and Steph's master bathroom, closing the door softly behind her.

He was still praying over Aurora just climbing back into bed normally and not noticing the way he was lyaing once she was done in there when, suddenly, the bed shifted again.

"Daddy, what're ya doin'?"

"Hush." He couldn't help the sigh. "Go to bed, Murph."

"Sleep down here?"

"No, don't-"

"Me too."

And Paul bit his tongue as his three year old tugged the pillow she was sharing with her mother out from under the woman's head, to bring with her down to the foot of the bed. This, of course, awoke Stephanie, who was facing the other way and seemed confused as to what had happened. Murphy only carried the pillow down to her father, for the pair to share.

Aurora was coming out of the bathroom then and, after pausing at the side of the bed, as if surveying what had occurred in her absence. Without a word, she only grabbed the pillow Paul had left, where his feet were rest, and went to bring it down to the bed of the bed before crawling up there too.

"Here Daddy." She made him lift his head so that she could stick the pilllow under there and, with a groan, Paul did so. Then, snuggling right up to the man, so that they could share it, she rested her head more on his arm than the pillow because why not?

Not one to be put out, Murphy made a face at Aurora and Paul, annoyed her pillow offering had been shunned and decided to use it all for herself. Not that she was gonna miss out on snuggling with her daddy though.

Steph was starting to truly awaken then, yawing as she did so, before glancing over her shoulder to find what had happened to her pillow.

"What are you guys doing? And gross, Paul. Stick your feet in my face much?"

Actually, not at all. Murphy was between them and then some space between her and Steph as well. Still, the woman seemed more put out by this than questioning about what was going on as, because why the hell not, she moved to rest in the opposite way on the bed as well, pulling the covers from where they were tucked beneath the mattress on her side so that she could use those. Paul was hoping this would entice Murphy to go snuggle up under the sheets and blankets with her mother, but no dice. She was warm enough, it seemed, cuddling with her father.

Blinking, Paul wasn't quite sure, still how he ended up in an even worse situation. Aurora was now resting on his upper arm, so that the whole dang thing could get pins and needles, while Murphy seemed to be drooling a bit as well, when she drifted off (Paul had a sinking feeling Stephanie was passing her cold off onto the girls and that would be a nightmare), while Vaughn was now literally slobbering all over his bare chest, no shirt to save him.

Then Steph was snoring too, when she fell back asleep, but that was rather moot of a point, he felt.

A loud huff from Bluto as well as the dog getting up, shaking, and then falling once more down on the bedroom floor reminded Paul that, while he might not be having the best night, it was still better than sleeping on the floor. And honestly, even if he did, he'd probably still end up with all four of his girls down there with him, making sure that he never got enough sleep even when he had the opportunity to.

Still you had to lie in the bed that you made (or ruined, as it were, in the moment), so Paul only tightened the arm that Aurora was going to cause to go numb tighter around her, so that she didn't tumble off the bed, and decided that drool wasn't so bad, when it was coming out of your own children. It was practically your drool then, right?

Right?

That's what he told himself every time the girls wanted a sip of his drink and backwashed the heck out of it.

He figured it applied in his current situation as well.

Turning his head to stare over Murph's, he watched Steph sleep for a bit, and grinning a bit to himself at how simply she just went along with whatever asinine thing they were doing, no need for explanation or exposition. 'cause she hadn't wanted the girls in bed with them to begin with. But she was putting up with it. Considering it was him who got them in their current situation, he figured he couldn't bitch too much.

Or at all. Eventually his girls wouldn't wanna do this. Snuggle with him. Sleep in bed with him. Even, worse case scenario, spend time with him. And he should soak it up (ha) for as long as he could.

Mmmm, yeah, he thought as he drifted off with no ailment to his problems. As long as he could.


End file.
